Classically Inclined is the personal blog of Dr. Liz Gloyn of the IAA. She blogs about her research, her teaching and various subjects related to classics and classical reception. On the blog, you’ll find reflections on her latest experiments with formative assessment, book and film reviews, summaries of conference papers she will be giving, and snippets from her research into Neronian literature, among other things.

The blog is designed to serve a couple of purposes. First, it aims to popularise classics, and to share the sorts of things that Dr. Gloyn spends her days thinking about (and hopefully to help others understand why she finds them endlessly interesting). Second, it has developed into something of a rolling manifesto about approaches to teaching, where Dr. Gloyn thinks about why she teaches as she does, and reflects on how to improve what she does. Finally, it highlights areas in which classics still plays an important role in day-to-day life, in ways that we sometimes notice and sometimes don’t.

Pop Classics examines the reception of Greece, Rome and occasionally Egypt and the Ancient Near East in modern popular culture. Focusing on film, television and novels, it also includes the odd graphic novel or computer game when the author happens to pick one up. The blog is personal and very informal (for which read, rambling and occasionally amusing) but with any luck the gem of a brilliant idea or two is buried in there somewhere, in amongst the admiration for Viking vampires and meticulously detailed account of the adventures of Boring and Dodgy Soldier in HBO’s Rome.

Pop Classics is written by Dr Juliette Harrisson of the IAA.

In the words of Bill Miller, the blog owner:

‘As Wonderful as Sunsets’ is a development of the idea of using a web log as research diary, supporting my doctoral studies. It supplants a blog started a couple of years ago as ‘A Long Way to Tipperary’, the name of which (ironically) reflected the hard slog, the difficulty, the troubles, oh the troubles of doing doctoral research.

Except I have discovered the person-centred approach. And it isn’t a slog, it isn’t difficult or troubling at all. What I’ve realised is that I am IMMERSED in this research, it touches every part of my life because it is all about being human, about me, about you, about being and being human. I already know myself as a self-actualising being and it is the self-actualising being that is doing the research, which is the same as being, unfolding, flowing, in the flow of time and experience. And the GREAT BIG THING that I’ve learnt is that it is MY time, which is the same as the Universe’s time, all time and no time – it is the flow, and the ebb, of time of the universe of me, of universes of me… and… and… well. Take a deep breath. Relax. Here and now boys, here and now. Suddenly I feel very easy about my deadlines and workflow.

So this blog expresses the joy, the beauty in harmony, the gentleness and the… yes, the Wonder of natural human beings who find themselves and learn to love themselves and radiate that love, that sharing, that connectedness, outwards to all humanity. It also reflects the overwhelming fact that the person-centred approach is suffused in my very being so that I will blog about anything and everything, although much of it will of course be ruminations on the person-centred approach to education, which is almost certainly applicable in all situations (I’m eager to be disproved, go for it!).

EA (Enduring America) WorldView is dedicated to engaging with the notion of “America” through a consideration of US foreign policy and politics. At the same time, we believe that the world cannot be considered just as an arena for American activity. The bloggers believe that “a WorldView has to recognise the aspirations, concerns, and activities of those in other countries without putting Washington at the centre of that perspective”. EA (Enduring America) WorldView is published by Scott Lucas in American and Canadian Studies, supported by a team of other academics and students.

Roles is a postgraduate gender and sexuality research network hosted by researchers at the University of Birmingham.

This network is takes the form of an open or round-table discussion in order to share ideas, get to know each other and begin to foster an environment in which we can grow confident and comfortable in talking about how gender and sexuality issues are bound up in our research and everyday experience. Even if your interest in gender and sexuality issues is nascent and not yet incorporated into your research, you are more than welcome.

Bigmouth Strikes Again is the blog of Chris Allen, a Research Fellow in the Institute of Applied Social Studies, School of Social Policy. Taking its name and sentiment from the classic Smiths song, the blog covers a wide range of social, political and cultural issues: from combating Islamophobia and the growing menace of the English Defence League through to the death of punk icons and the contemporary relevance of the Carry On films. Rarely avoiding the controversial and contentious, the blog is capable of polarising opinion and provoking angry responses. But as the original song lyrics suggest, some people get that “I was only joking”.

Faith in an Urban World is the blog of Chris Shannahan from the Theology Department. The blog is intended to be a bridge between ‘academic’ blogging and ‘community-based’ blogging – hopefully linking the two worlds together around the themes of faith and urban life. It deals with contemporary topics of urban culture and community issues.

Galbascat is a blog from the Hispanic Studies Department and aims to bring attention to events, activities and opportunities relevant to the Galician, Basque and Catalan culture and language. The blog often highlights cultural events, such as the brilliant Galician, Basque and Catalan Cinema Season at the MAC Centre. It also brings attention to summer school opportunities, as well as social and political issues relevant to Galicia, the Basque Country and Catalunya. Galbascat‘s enthusiastic team of bloggers brings their world to your computer screen.

Second Site is the personal blog of Keith Challis, a Research Fellow in the IBM Vista Centre at the University of Birmingham.  For almost as long as archaeologists have been using computers they have been exploited to render and visualise archaeological data. The Vista Centre in the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity at the University of Birmingham has been exploring the use of computer games to visualise archaeological landscapes based on real archaeological survey data.  Part of this innovation comes from the recognition that modern archaeological surveys produce such large volumes of data (thousands of three-dimensional elevation observations from GPS topographical surveys, millions from airborne or terrestrial laser scanning) that new methods are needed to appropriately explore such wealth, part also comes from a sense of ennui brought on by traditional 2D static renderings of survey data and part from a recognition that game software is cheap compared to bespoke computer graphics programmes (tens of pounds rather than hundreds or thousands).